







































 

 

 

 

 

The US Educational Response to the 

COVID-19 Pandemic

Nathan Storey, Robert E. Slavin 

 
Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, MD 21286, USA

Abstract. This paper examines the United States federal and state educa-

tional responses to the spread of the COVID-19 pandemic, as well as 
states’ plans for reopening schools. The virus entered the United States 

in January 2020. As the virus spread, most school districts began to 

close in March. At the end of June, the United States has experienced the 
highest number of cases and deaths due to COVID-19 in the world, and 

infection rates appear to be rising once again. Given the great physical 

and socioeconomic diversity of the United States, the federal and state 
response to COVID-19 and plans to reopen schools in the autumn have 

emphasized flexibility and adaptation. However, the implementation of 
remote (online) learning has highlighted and exacerbated long-standing 

racial and economic inequalities in US society related to technology 

access, school engagement, and school-parent relationships. These ine-
qualities may be exacerbated as schools attempt to reopen and students 

continue to face inconsistent access to learning, learning loss during the 

spring semester and summer, and COVID-19 spread among the most at-
risk population groups. Further research and practical interventions, 

such as tutoring, should be implemented to address educational equality 
issues and improve access, whether to in-person or remote instruction. 

Best Evid Chin Edu 2020; 5(2):617-633. 

Doi: 10.15354/bece.20.or027. 

How to Cite: Storey, N., Slavin, R.E. (2020) The US educational response to the 

COVID-19 pandemic. Best Evid Chin Edu, 5(2):617-633. 

Keywords: COVID-19; Remote Learning; School Closure; Educational Responses; 

Online Schooling; Distance Learning; School Reopening.

 
 

About the Author: Nathan Storey, School of Education, Johns Hopkins University, 300 East Joppa Road 5th fl., 

Baltimore, MD 21286, USA. Email: nstorey1@jhu.edu 

Correspondence to: Robert E. Slavin, Professor, School of Education, Johns Hopkins University, 300 East Joppa 
Road 5th fl., Baltimore, MD 21286, USA. Email: rslavin@SuccessForAll.org. 

Conflict of Interests: None.  



Storey & Slavin. The US Educational Response to the COVID-19 Pandemic. 

Vol.5, No. 2, 2020 618 

N the 2020 pandemic, the United States has had the largest number of COVID-19 

cases and deaths of any country. Its responses to the health crisis have been frag-

mented and uncertain. The same fragmentation and uncertainty have prevailed in 

the US education system, and as of this writing (June 2020), the policies and outcomes 

of US schools combating COVID-19 are not yet known. The educational response in 

the United States has emphasized a reliance on flexibility, adaptation, and local deci-

sion-making, for both better and worse. This paper will examine the US response to the 

coronavirus outbreak, focusing on the different approaches taken by different states and 

school districts, the challenges encountered in closing schools and shifting to remote 

(online) or distance learning, and prospects for reopening school systems in the Fall 

2020. As will be seen, the transition to remote learning was often inconsistent and re-

vealed or exacerbated existing inequalities in US society, especially those related to 

socioeconomic status and race. These inequalities are likely to be further intensified 

should the remote learning system continue in place under the conditions that existed in 

the spring or without large-scale, effective action taken to address COVID-19-related 

learning loss.  

Onset of US Pandemic 

The first identified coronavirus cases in the United States were reported in mid-January 

2020, though some speculate the virus entered the United States as early as December 

2019, and began circulating in northern California and Washington State, before spread-

ing to other states (Baker, 2020). At the end of January, the US Department of Health 

and Human Services (HHS) declared a public health emergency, introducing quaran-

tines for US citizens traveling from China and denying entry to non-US citizens who 

had been to China. Washington State reported the first US death due to coronavirus on 

February 29, and the virus had been reported in over half of all US states by the middle 

of March. By the end of March, US states reported over 3,000 deaths and 164,500 con-

firmed cases. The US federal government passed the Coronavirus Aid, Relief and Eco-

nomic Security (CARES) Act on March 27, 2020, including support for K-12 and high-

er education institutions in the form of formula grants to be distributed to states based 

on their shares of Title I-A funds, to be used for response activities and long-term clo-

sure planning and coordination and educational technology purchases, as well as a por-

tion of the Governor’s Education Relief Fund, a discretionary sum to be used for emer-

gency support grants for childcare, K-12, and higher education (Reid, 2020). The inten-

tion of the bill was to enable flexibility in addressing the specific educational needs 

each state faced. In addition, the act included $18.5 billion for the Supplemental Nutri-

tion Assistance Program (SNAP), supporting child nutrition (Jordan, 2020). One month 

later, the US had reported 60,966 total deaths and over 1 million confirmed cases, 

which nearly doubled again by the end of May, when the US reported 103,781 deaths 

and 1.77 million cases (Ritchie, et al., 2020). As of July 1, 2020, there have been 2.5 

million cases and 125,000 deaths, and both numbers continue to accelerate. While the 

federal government passed some measures and recommended social distancing actions, 

the more substantive responses to the pandemic have occurred at the state level. 

I 



Storey & Slavin. The US Educational Response to the COVID-19 Pandemic. 

Vol.5, No. 2, 2020 619 

State and Local Response to COVID-19 

Since no cure or vaccine existed, the main public health response to the pandemic was 

social distancing, which entailed the closures of most venues in which people gather. 

This included schools. By the time the CARES Act was signed into law in late March, 

US states and territories had been forced to take action on their own to determine when 

and how to close schools and to support teachers and students transition to remote 

learning. School superintendents petitioned the federal government and the Centers for 

Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) for guidance on how to respond to the pandemic 

in February (Binkley, 2020), but the first states did not begin mandating the closures of 

in-person schooling until mid-March, initially on a two-three week basis, though indi-

vidual school districts and schools did close earlier than that as students and faculty 

began testing positive for the disease (Forgie, 2020). By the end of March, all 50 states 

had announced mandatory or recommended closures of public schools, and most re-

quired remote learning in place of in-person classes. Some states, such as Kansas, Vir-

ginia, and Oklahoma, decided that schools would not reopen for the remainder of the 

school year, but other states, including New York, Maryland, and New Jersey, put off 

that decision until April or early May. Though most states ordered schools to be closed, 

seven states (California, Idaho, Tennessee, Florida, South Dakota, Maine, and Kentucky) 

merely recommended schools be closed, allowing district variations in response to the 

virus, and by May, some counties in Colorado, Wyoming, and Montana (Meltzer, 2020) 

had begun to reopen in a limited capacity and in smaller, less-populated areas (Map, 

2020; Kirsch, 2020). As it became clear that schools would have to remain closed be-

yond the initial two-week closure, districts began petitioning the federal government for 

waivers on the required number of school days and hours in a year (Jones & Pflaum, 

2020) and on completion of standardized testing. At least one state, Georgia, petitioned 

the Department of Education for approval to suspend standardized testing for the 2020-

2021 school year as well (Strauss, 2020). While the school schedule and standardized 

assessments are determined by states and school districts, receipt of federal funds is tied 

to completion of these requirements under the basic US education law, the Every Stu-

dent Succeeds Act (ESSA). With the closing of school campuses for all levels, schools 

began the process of creating remote learning curricula, materials, and policies and pro-

cedures on short notice. 

Online Learning Provision and School Services 

The short period between the decision to close schools and the initiation of remote 

learning caused a scramble across the country to prepare for online instruction, requir-

ing flexibility and adaptation at the state, district, and school levels. In short succession, 

teachers received tutorials on using Zoom or other videoconferencing platforms, revised 

their curricula and standards for assessment, and developed printed packets to be dis-

tributed to students’ homes, among other approaches to support the transition. Washing-

ton State developed resource lists for parents including courses, online resources and 

learning games, exercise activities, and downloadable content for learning (OSPI, 2020). 



Storey & Slavin. The US Educational Response to the COVID-19 Pandemic. 

Vol.5, No. 2, 2020 620 

Teachers soon found themselves taking on unprecedented responsibilities. Many states 

required or recommended regular teacher-student communication, such as through syn-

chronous lessons, sometimes on a daily basis (as in Iowa, Minnesota, and Vermont), or 

on a weekly basis (as in Arkansas, Delaware, and Michigan) (Sparks, 2020). Schools 

switched to communications by email, phone calls and text messages, print, and even 

social media (Herold, 2020). A teacher in Greenville, South Carolina, remembered, “‘It 

‘was just like a free-for-all. We [teachers] all went to school. We created lesson plans in, 

like, 12 hours. So 10 days of lesson plans in a day, essentially. And we had to be pre-

pared to launch those lesson plans by Wednesday and to start doing full-on e-learning, 

which our kids had never really done before without us’” (Turner, et al., 2020). Florida 

schools relied on teachers to build new curriculum plans from a variety of sources, in-

cluding Public Broadcasting System (PBS) programs, existing materials, and new mate-

rials developed on short notice (Kamenetz, 2020). This conversion was a monumental 

feat asked of teachers and administrators, which they rose to face in their combined 

commitment to students’ wellbeing and education. 

With the transition to remote learning, the focus on education provision shifted 

out of necessity, not just in terms of curricular material, but also in regard to other 

school roles and responsibilities. Many states, including Kansas, Wisconsin, and Vir-

ginia, prioritized preparations for graduating students to be able to complete their stud-

ies by waiving or allowing districts to request waivers for graduation requirements 

(Sawchuk, 2020; Sparks, 2020) that would no longer be feasible while conducting re-

mote learning. Few states opted to specify the number of hours or methods used for 

remote learning (Sparks, 2020). In order to allow flexibility, Montana decided that re-

mote learning did not have to be online, requiring no single mechanism for districts to 

continue education. Cleveland’s long distance approach, recognizing that the district 

included a large high poverty population and many students had inconsistent or no in-

ternet and computer access, chose to prioritize review of material students had already 

been introduced to, instead of new curriculum material not yet covered during the year 

(Gewertz, 2020). Districts have also chosen to prioritize student social emotional wel-

fare during the traumatic period. Schools play an important role not just in students’ 

education, but also their wellbeing, and many districts have endeavored to continue 

providing these services, such as free meals, during the pandemic. The Salt Lake City 

(UT) School District, for example, provided breakfast and lunch Monday through Fri-

day and dinners for students three days a week starting in April (Stauffer, 2020). These 

efforts highlight the flexibility required of schools and districts to address the specific 

needs of the students they serve and the importance of schools beyond the classroom. 

The necessity for distance education and worries about equity led some larger 

urban districts to partner with local public television to develop programs for broadcast 

and online distribution. Los Angeles Unified School District partnered with Public 

Broadcasting System (PBS) stations across Southern California to produce educational 

programming for television, websites, and apps targeting PreK-second grade students, 

grades 3-8, and 9-12 (Kamenetz, 2020; Goldsmith, 2020; Li & Lalani, 2020). Teachers 

were able also to turn to preexisting online curricula meeting multiple states’ standards, 



Storey & Slavin. The US Educational Response to the COVID-19 Pandemic. 

Vol.5, No. 2, 2020 621 

including EngageNY, LearnZillion, and Open Up Resources (Rand, 2020). These part-

nerships have the potential to reach more students who may lack access to a laptop for 

joining online class sessions or regular internet access. Few of these programs have 

been studied systematically, so it is unclear how effective the programs selected are for 

meeting students’ learning needs, however. 

Some states and school districts have opted to reach their students through in-

creased technology purchases, using existing budgetary funds or funding from the 

CARES Act grants. Chicago Public Schools reportedly gave out more than 100,000 

devices to students (Turner et al., 2020), and Miami-Dade County Public Schools dis-

seminated over 80,000 mobile devices and 11,000 smart phones to create Wi-Fi 

hotspots (Goldstein et al., 2020). The Greater Nashville (Tennessee) School District 

(Glover, 2020), put into place programs to purchase laptops or Wi-Fi hotspots for stu-

dents who struggled with access to internet, though recent predictions cast doubt on 

whether the computers will be procured and distributed in time for the start of the new 

school year (Mangrum, 2020). With Cleveland’s large high-poverty population, the dis-

trict has attempted to distribute technology to enable access, but there are reportedly 

still many without regular access (Gewertz, 2020). Technology provision was not lim-

ited to major urban areas. Rural Minford, Ohio also attempted to deliver laptops and 

printed work to the roughly 25% of students without technology (Goldstein et al., 2020), 

and South Portland Maine Schools district began a one-to-one technology program in 

2003, using both iPads for younger students and Chromebooks for older ones, and be-

gan pairing remote learning with online courses for teachers and administrators in the 

design and implementation of online learning (Hogan, 2020).  

Some districts relied on previously obtained technology and information to 

reach those struggling with access. South Carolina (Munyan-Penney, 2020) and the 

Coachella Valley (CA) Unified District (Lee et al., 2020) both used previously pur-

chased school buses with Wi-Fi hotspots, positioned primarily in lower-income neigh-

borhoods, to enable greater Internet access. Idaho provided residents with a list of no-

cost or low-cost Internet options, while South Carolina developed maps showing Wi-Fi 

hotspots throughout the state, including those the state had placed on school buses. 

(Munyan-Penney, 2020). Lindsay (CA) Unified School District, with a large population 

of migrant agricultural workers, had started a community Wi-Fi project in 2016, allow-

ing minimal interruptions to Internet access and learning as schools transitioned to re-

mote learning (Kamenetz, 2020). Salem City, Virginia (VA) implemented a one-to-one 

program prior to 2020, providing Chromebooks to grade 3-12 students, paired with 200 

hotspots and a partnership with a local cable company to provide free internet access for 

students qualifying for free and reduced lunch (Sawchuk, 2020). These approaches, 

both using newly purchased technology and previously appropriated technology distrib-

uted in new ways, became among the most popular means to address differential access 

to remote education offerings. 

In the immediate aftermath of the closure of schools, districts wondered if and 

how they would continue to provide aid and services for students with disabilities, re-

quired under the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA). Some even con-



Storey & Slavin. The US Educational Response to the COVID-19 Pandemic. 

Vol.5, No. 2, 2020 622 

sidered not providing services out of a fear of compliance violations (Green, 2020). 

While the federal government granted waivers on grading and hours of class time, Sec-

retary of Education Betsy DeVos rejected waivers on IDEA (Jordan, 2020; Green, 

2020), and federal authorities have been flexible in the remote services (such as 

telehealth) that can be reimbursed through Medicaid, a major funding source for school-

based health care (Jordan, 2020), enabling teachers and parents to find educational solu-

tions. Special education teachers employed a variety of approaches to reach their stu-

dents. Some connected with students virtually or via videotapes provided to parents 

demonstrating practices they can do with their children at home (Jordan, 2020). Many 

students with disabilities struggled to use online videoconferencing and learning tools 

or printed materials, requiring the assistance of human or technological aides such as 

screen-reading software, which are not included in programs such as Zoom (Hill, 2020). 

There is great variation in the population of students with disabilities, with many differ-

ent needs and abilities, so for some the transition has been beneficial. The ASD Nest 

program in New York City focuses on incorporating students with autism into main-

stream classrooms. Tracey Murray, a kindergarten teacher with ASD Nest, moved her 

classes, as well as a “social club” for students with autism (ASD), to practice conversa-

tions online, discovering that students found it easier to communicate and look each 

other in the eye when using Zoom instead of speaking in person (Hill, 2020). While 

states, districts, and teachers took drastic action to continue providing education to 

many students, the transition was not without problems, some of them more significant 

than others. 

Challenges and Inequities in Online Learning 

While many states and districts went to great lengths to continue educational services 

for students, the remote learning process was not without its challenges. The transition 

was not always smooth. Some districts and schools, particularly in urban areas, such as 

Sidwell Friends, a private school in Washington, D.C., which went paperless before 

2020 (Turner, et al., 2020), more easily transitioned online because of existing infra-

structure. But many school districts faced various issues, including lack of technology 

access for all students; teacher struggles to provide online lessons, student engagement, 

and the socioemotional impact of COVID-19 on students. Often, these issues corre-

sponded more highly with preexisting conditions including family socioeconomic (SES) 

background, school funding and infrastructure, and student learning needs. Access to 

technology, and therefore, access to educational content during remote learning, proved 

to be a disproportionately greater challenge for students and families from lower socio-

economic statuses. US census data from 2015 suggested that 15% of US households 

lack high speed internet, which impacts students’ ability to complete and turn in as-

signments; this is disproportionately more of an issue for Black teens than their peers 

(25% compared to 4% of White teens and 6% of Latinx teens) (Anderson & Perrin, 

2020). Upon the initiation of social distancing and remote learning, adults working ser-

vice industry jobs often lost their jobs, leading to a loss of stability for their families. 

One outcome of this could be the loss of internet access for their homes. Over 30 mil-



Storey & Slavin. The US Educational Response to the COVID-19 Pandemic. 

Vol.5, No. 2, 2020 623 

lion jobs may have been lost during the months of March-May (Morath, 2020), hitting 

working class families the hardest, as these jobs are often ones which cannot be con-

ducted remotely. Unable to pay bills, internet access could easily fall by the wayside, 

depriving their children of remote learning opportunities.  

While many districts and states took or are in the process of taking steps to 

bridge the technology access gap as described in the previous section, a significant gap 

remains, which has a greater harm for those who need the most support. Rigorous re-

mote learning, using online platforms and at least some synchronous learning, attend-

ance tracking, and grading of students’ work, was challenging to accomplish in the 

timeframe required, but implementation was skewed towards school districts with larger 

proportions of high-SES families. The policies and practices school districts reported 

following revealed that as few as 20% of schools may have offered rigorous remote 

learning nationwide (Lieberman, 2020), but this number is almost certainly worse in 

areas and schools that cater primarily to students from high poverty and minority back-

grounds.  

Teacher interactions and student access to remote learning both appeared to be 

significantly worse for students from disadvantaged backgrounds. By one estimate, up 

to 40% of the poorest students accessed remote learning just once a week (Kamenetz, 

2020), while only 32% of teachers in high poverty districts reported interacting with 

students on a daily basis (compared to over 50% in higher SES districts) (Education 

Week, May 7, 2020). In districts with few low-SES families, only 20% of school lead-

ers were concerned with missing technology issues, while 68% of school leaders in dis-

tricts with a high proportion of low-SES families were concerned with this issue 

(Herold, 2020). As described above, some states moved quickly to provide devices and 

hotspots to students lacking access, but for other states that made efforts to do this later 

in the semester or over the summer, technological options were more limited due to 

high demand (Herold, 2020; Munyan-Penney, 2020). The students in these states and 

districts are liable to then become even more behind should schools not reopen in the 

fall, as they will continue to miss out on class content and educational support. Some 

students were left out of state guidance and teacher efforts. While all states issued guid-

ance on the provision of special education remotely, just two-thirds of states provided 

guidance or resources specifically for English learners (ELs) (Sparks, 2020). Due to the 

differential access to education, Jonathan Plucker of Johns Hopkins University Center 

for Talented Youth suggests that students may enter the Fall 2020 semester with a range 

of up to eight grade levels in knowledge (Bowman, 2020). This is a huge difference in 

experience during this challenging time, which, unless addressed, will have a dispropor-

tionately large impact on students from disadvantaged backgrounds. 

Because of educational access and technological issues, teachers have struggled 

to make remote learning work effectively for all students while taking on a large work-

load themselves. Teachers reported struggling with learning to use the technology effec-

tively. There have been reports of “Zoombombing,” when outsiders join classroom 

Zoom sessions, shouting obscenities or otherwise disrupting the lesson (Munyan-

Penney, 2020). Some teachers struggled with learning how to host and manage live 



Storey & Slavin. The US Educational Response to the COVID-19 Pandemic. 

Vol.5, No. 2, 2020 624 

learning sessions and instead relied on recording sessions and sending out videos for 

students to watch on their own or on students completing assignments included in paper 

packets (Herold, 2020). Teachers, parents, and students agreed that teachers teaching 

online were far more likely to engage students than were videos or assignments to be 

done without teacher input, but many teachers found online teaching more difficult. In 

addition, teachers have also been asked to take part in additional professional develop-

ment sessions to be able to maximize the effectiveness of remote learning, use of plat-

forms such as Zoom, and how to support students during this time. While the profes-

sional development was necessary, requiring additional professional development creat-

ed another strain on teachers’ time and energy, when they too were dealing with trauma 

and stress in their own lives. 

Some teachers were challenged to reach students over large distances. The 

Mountain Empire district (California) must provide services for students spanning more 

than 660 square miles, three Native American reservations, and six different communi-

ties (Sawchuk, 2020). Consequently, teachers are working longer hours than before. 

Rebecca Sorenson of rural Michigan reported holding individual Zoom sessions with 

students for 4-5 hours a day, followed by hours of driving to students’ homes to drop 

off educational materials (Gewertz, 2020). Methods and requirements related to grading 

students’ work quickly became an equity-focused conversation. Many districts thought 

that continuing to grade students punished low-income students without access to tech-

nology. This partly reflected school leaders’ own ability to provide access to these stu-

dents. High-poverty and rural district leaders reported that they were less able to pro-

vide remote learning options for all students than wealthy districts. Only 34% of high 

poverty districts reported able to provide access for all, compared with 62-73% for sub-

urban and wealthier districts (Herold, 2020). Their concerns also were informed by stu-

dent engagement in existing classroom activities. Almost one third (32%) of students in 

districts of highest poverty families were not regularly logging into online classwork, 

completing assignments, or communicating with their teachers, while only 12% of high-

income district students were “truant” (Herold, 2020). Districts subsequently considered 

moving to pass/fail grading systems (Sawchuk, 2020), focusing on moving students 

towards standards instead of to establish a grade, or passing all students already on track 

to progress to the next grade before the suspension of in-person learning (Schwartz, 

2020). These approaches were intended to ameliorate the “double hit” of losing class 

learning time and school community (Fay, 2020) that are particularly beneficial to low 

income students.  

In disadvantaged areas, the load of responsibility fell more significantly on par-

ents to support their children’s education. This challenge was greatest for younger stu-

dents in elementary and pre-kindergarten (pre-K) grades, as well as students with disa-

bilities, who require more supervision and support when using technology or complet-

ing classwork. Older students in secondary school, more self-sufficient and competent 

in technology use, did not generally require this level of supervision. Schools sought to 

coordinate more closely with the parents of students who appeared at risk of struggling 

or falling out of the system. Peter Kannam, principal at Henderson-Hopkins Elemen-



Storey & Slavin. The US Educational Response to the COVID-19 Pandemic. 

Vol.5, No. 2, 2020 625 

tary/Middle School in Baltimore, Maryland, reported that their school hired four in-

structors to provide support for teachers to conduct online classes, send out daily text 

updates to parents on student engagement, as well as emails and robocalls two to three 

times per week, and held parent town halls every other week (Kannam, 2020). These 

efforts, coupled with laptop distribution to 80% of the students in need of them, appear 

to have paid off, as the school reported that almost 99% of their students were engaged 

in classes, with 84% attending classes over the first seven weeks of the pandemic school 

closure. But in some cases, these efforts could not replace the role of schools in engag-

ing students and supporting their learning. “No amount of love and care at home can 

turn the average parent into a special-education teacher overnight. Nor can it enable 

them to practice occupational, speech, or physical therapy” (Hill, 2020). 

Differences in student engagement can also be tied to the various roles schools 

play beyond the classroom. Students from low-SES families or experiencing homeless-

ness rely on schools for food, healthcare, and social supports. Nearly 1.5 million stu-

dents nationwide experience homelessness, while 13 million children experience hunger 

(Nuamah, et al., 2020). For these students, the supports schools provide are vital to their 

very survival. Even though schools have made efforts to provide meals, the food insecu-

rity (Van Lancker & Parolin, 2020) and socioemotional trauma that students are experi-

encing without school support systems are very real. These issues have been shown 

repeatedly by strongly designed research studies to have an impact on educational 

achievement.  

Another factor that may have exacerbated differential implementation of re-

mote learning is state education funding levels. Much has been written about the differ-

ently sized budgets maintained by public, private, and charter schools. Following the 

passage of the CARES Act, Secretary DeVos pushed for funds distributed by the feder-

al government to states to be distributed increasingly to private schools (Stratford, 

2020). This breaks from previous Title I funding standards, which restricted private 

schools to access these funds only for “equitable programs” (Jordan, 2020).  

Planning the Reopening of Schools 

As the rate of infection and death has decreased in some parts of the United States, 

thanks to social distancing and other preventative methods, attention has turned to plan-

ning the reopening of schools in the fall. All states and districts, however, are planning 

for a fall reopening. But with disease rates continuing at high levels, and even continu-

ing to rise in many states as of late early July 2020, it is unclear when it will be safe to 

fully open. Many states began reopening public spaces and loosening public social dis-

tancing restrictions in May and June 2020, and subsequently are seeing an uptick in 

cases, in some contexts experiencing record highs in state COVID-19 cases. Should 

these renewed rising levels of COVID-19 prevalence continue into the fall, it is un-

known if schools will be able to reopen as planned. While the American Association of 

Pediatrics (AAP) has recommended reopening in-person schooling on account of 

schools’ role in child development (Kamenetz, 2020-e), the decision to do so belongs 

with state government and local school districts. Districts and states must determine if 



Storey & Slavin. The US Educational Response to the COVID-19 Pandemic. 

Vol.5, No. 2, 2020 626 

restarting in-person classes is worth the potential risk of infection, what steps and re-

quirements to put in place, or if it is best to continue remote learning until infection 

rates diminish. 

All US states are planning to reopen in the fall to some degree, working with 

school boards and state and local leaders to develop plans and guidance. The CDC has 

put forth a series of recommendations for school districts to consider enacting in the 

process of reopening, including social distancing inside the school building, enhanced 

cleaning of surfaces, and providing options for teachers who feel uneasy or are at great-

er risk of infection to work remotely (CDC, 2020). Given the potential for resurgence, 

others are preparing for a hybrid reopening approach or a return to remote learning even 

if schools reopen, purchasing more devices and considering one-to-one policies. Phila-

delphia School District is considering a hybrid plan based on limiting the number of 

students and staff in the school on a given day while allowing other students and staff to 

participate remotely based on health concerns (Hanna, 2020). Annette Anderson of the 

Johns Hopkins University Center for Safe and Healthy Schools sees this as the number 

one priority, “We need a one-to-one technology policy in every district…One student, 

one device with internet access included’” (Myers, 2020). Other dramatic restructuring 

ideas have been widely discussed, including two-session days, alternating school and 

home days to limit the number of students in a classroom (Sharfstein & Morphew, 

2020), “microschools” with intensive home-school cooperation, moving classrooms 

outdoors (Kamenetz, 2020), or extending the school year (Ehren & Turkeli, 2020). Al-

ternate-day plans have been widely adopted in other countries, and at least one large 

district, Fairfax, Virginia (Arnold, 2020), has announced such a plan. However, districts 

in Tucson (Arizona), Nashville (Tennessee), and Cincinnati (Ohio), have announced 

plans to fully open schools in the fall whenever it is safe, and allow each school to fig-

ure out how to implement social distancing (Conover, 2020; Mangrum, 2020; Ryle et 

al., 2020). These districts have also announced that parents will be allowed to keep their 

children at home and that any students remaining at home will be provided with remote 

learning for this purpose. 

The most common approach to reopening being discussed as of this writing 

seems to be social distancing within the school building. The best methods to imple-

ment this practice include spacing students out within classrooms by separating individ-

ual desks, keeping students in small groups that do not mix with each other during the 

school day, keeping students out of common areas, and ending extracurricular sports 

and clubs (Sharfstein & Morphew, 2020). Within-classroom spacing requires alternate-

day or two daily session strategies to reduce the number of students in each class. Some 

schools have considered repurposing cafeterias and shared space into additional class-

room space (Editors, 2020), using barriers between desks, spacing out arrival and depar-

ture from schools (Sharfstein & Morphew, 2020). Since many US students ride buses to 

and from school, social distancing on buses has been a widespread concern. School 

buses could, for instance, be run with fewer students, spaced out in each bus, with more 

buses, and with buses using certain routes to avoid mixing (Will, 2020). Fairfax (VA) 

County Public Schools (FCPS) developed diagrams for classroom desk arrangement, as 



Storey & Slavin. The US Educational Response to the COVID-19 Pandemic. 

Vol.5, No. 2, 2020 627 

well as seating in school buses. Based on a 77-seat bus, FCPS recommends 23 students 

per bus, as well as the bus driver’s child and the driver (FCPS, 2020). These approaches 

are all intended to minimize transmission of the virus among students and staff.  

But social distancing could be difficult to maintain, particularly for younger 

children and when students are not in organized environments such as classrooms. Dis-

tances are easy enough to maintain when students are stationary at their desks in a class-

room, but time spent in the hallways moving between classes, in recess on the play-

ground, and getting to and from school, are the bigger challenge areas, where social 

distancing protocols could easily break down without careful monitoring, a herculean 

task. This makes it clear that social distancing is not a silver bullet to enable schools to 

be reopened. There is some question about who should wear masks, at what ages stu-

dents should start being required to wear them, and what procedures should be put in 

place for people to enter school buildings. The CDC recommends that students be en-

couraged, not required, to wear masks, and that all faculty and staff wear masks (Will, 

2020) as so far, adults are the more at-risk population. While some countries have used 

temperature checks at the entrance of schools, some have seen this as an insufficient 

method given the possibility of transmission by individuals not displaying symptoms. 

Overreliance on temperature checks could give a “false sense of security” (Will, 2020), 

leading to the loosening of adherence to social distancing and mask wearing, to say 

nothing of potential complications when students must be checked following outdoor 

activities or fire drills. Other added steps could include testing, increased places to wash 

hands, and enhanced surface cleaning protocols. Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the Na-

tional Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, recommended use of pooled testing 

(combining several students’ tests together into one sample for testing) to save school 

resources and time (Watts, 2020).  

Despite the existence of a number of different potential steps to address 

COVID-19 spread in schools, many teachers remain concerned about whether returning 

to schools is the right decision. Questions abound for what the classroom and school 

format will look like and how these policies will impact teachers’ routines and proce-

dures. School districts must consider how self-quarantine policies impact teacher sick 

leave, whether teachers can and should take on additional responsibilities regarding 

child safety and classroom sanitation, how to manage high-risk teachers (or teachers 

with family who are high-risk) (Will, 2020), to name a few issues. Parents too are con-

cerned about what returning to school mean for their children. A survey of Los Angeles 

parents revealed that around 20% of parents are not yet ready for their children to go 

back to school in person (Blume, 2020). There is not much time left for states and dis-

tricts to make these decisions, satisfy worried teachers (and parents), and implement 

policy changes or make physical changes to school grounds. 

The changes necessary could also be cost prohibitive for some districts. At a 

time when state education budgets are facing cuts, school districts are estimated to need 

as much as $1.8 million each (Will, 2020) for construction, repairs, changes to transpor-

tation protocols, new staff and health personnel, equipment, and maintenance. One 

common recommendation, an increase in school nursing personnel, is also potentially 



Storey & Slavin. The US Educational Response to the COVID-19 Pandemic. 

Vol.5, No. 2, 2020 628 

challenging for urban schools where nurses are spread across multiple locations, or rural 

areas, where qualified nurses may be hard to come by or attract. Even in California’s 

affluent and mostly suburban Orange County, the ratio of nurse to students can range 

from 1:1,100 to 1:10,000 (Editors, 2020). A more practical and inexpensive alternative 

would be the hiring of “health aides,” certified individuals who could assist schools 

with practical matters such as temperature checks, administration of prescription medi-

cine, and distribution of masks, among other tasks. School health aides could also gath-

er information, support the spread of information to a school’s community, form rela-

tionships, and refer students to established health providers. These services would free 

up the time and responsibilities of school nurses (if present) to take on regular student 

health needs and more serious health concerns. Additional funding could come from the 

federal government. The House of Representatives passed a bill, the Health and Eco-

nomic Recovery Omnibus Emergency Solutions (HEROES) Act in April 2020, which 

would have included additional education funds, but it has not been introduced to the 

Senate. The funds could be prioritized for public school districts facing the greatest lev-

els of COVID-19-related learning and staffing loss (Sharfstein & Morphew, 2020). 

While these steps may support schools in putting into place health protocols to 

minimize spread of COVID-19, they do little to address the learning gaps that have de-

veloped between students with and without regular access to remote learning. How 

should schools go about bridging the potentially eight levels of difference between stu-

dents that have developed over one semester? One potentially effective approach to 

address this gap could be tutoring. One on one or small group tutoring support has been 

proven to have a strong effect on learning reading and mathematics. Some existing tu-

toring programs consistently produce effect sizes of 0.40 or more, around 5 additional 

months of learning (Slavin, 2020), and tutoring by paraprofessionals has been shown to 

be as effective as tutoring administered by teachers (Inns et al., 2018). In large enough 

numbers, tutors, perhaps recruited and organized through AmeriCorps, could move the 

needle for students to make up the COVID-19 learning loss slide. The government of 

the Netherlands recently set aside $278 million to provide support to all students in el-

ementary, secondary, and vocational schools who need it (Baars, 2020), while the UK 

set aside roughly $1.24 billion for tutoring and other services (Adams, 2020). Were the 

US to implement a similar program, considering the different population size, similar 

approaches could cost $5-7.5 billion (Slavin, 2020). Regardless of the methods used, 

significant steps must be taken to address the widening gap in learning brought on by 

the pandemic. 

Implications 

In contrast to the transition to remote learning that occurred in more centralized educa-

tional systems, such as South Korea, the United States has a long way to go to address 

the challenges of equity in the implementation of remote learning. While some steps 

and school-network-platform partnerships made efforts to close the gaps, a large portion 

of students experienced lower access to and participation in education after the initia-

tion of remote learning. Reopening schools to in-person instruction would enable great-



Storey & Slavin. The US Educational Response to the COVID-19 Pandemic. 

Vol.5, No. 2, 2020 629 

er access to education, but comes with its own questions, including whether families 

would be comfortable sending their children back to schools, whether teachers would 

risk exposure, what steps should be taken to limit transmission of the virus and how 

best to ensure compliance with these protocols, and how school districts would pay for 

any changes at a time when school budgets are being cut. Regardless of whether schools 

reopen, remote learning is continued, or some sort of hybrid of in-person and online 

learning is implemented in the fall, the largest question of all remains: how can schools 

close the gap that has formed due to the COVID-19 slide and unequal access to educa-

tion during the spring semester? The federal government and US states must consider 

the steps taken by other countries as they reopen to learn what is most effective, how 

challenges can best be addressed as they arise, and what programs, such as widescale 

tutoring provision, can make up for the time lost. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Received: 02 July 2020 

Revised: 05 July 2020 

Accepted: 05 July 2020 

 

 


	OriginalArticle-Slavin-BECE_title_15July2020
	OriginalArticle-Slavin-BECE_Maintext15July2020

